The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1887-07-13
A DASTiRDLY GRIM L.
A Crooked nut Fiepdish Attempt at VI.
tlOus Revenge.

A dastardly attempt was madrt to wreck
a train IN the North" IN Pacific Thursday
night of last week, rs revenge on Il brake
IN IN of the Montana Uni N The logic
o the fellows revenge was very crooked
but he planned his scheme with careful
maligni'y, and hat fprn tnrtuitnns series
o 0,rclnlstancus might liuvc oc~,N>ionrd
an apIallin. loss If life.
The facts, in bii.I, are as follows: Her
m III Sis,iun, Il railroad section hand, got
OIL the north bound evening train at
Stuart. lie hal some dill ,ulty with
Conductor Russell about his fare, anl
after the ,rtiu lun Deer l. 'dge lee me
n 'iIy, boisiorous AMI vulgar. Ito Was
intoxicated, nML his conduct b ing intnl-
cradle in tt ladies' Tar, the brlkru III
%endcavurrl Ia have him leave that ON
partmrut and go in the smoker. He re
81 s,ed and II fight cnsl"d, in which
the brake hal the h st f it, AMI
knockel him nlput with considerable
yis.,r. Sa Isl N Iwnrr vengeance H., alnSt
the brakeman, dr'lri J.. repeatedly h.
would kill hinI, that he wcu'dn't live till
morning, that he woald wreck the train,
etc. Arriving ut Garrison he trok the
number of the engine AMI cars, or
thought he did, and $ Led he cond 'ct' r
which way his train was going. Rus
sell told him he was going West. In
reality the tain goes no further than
Garrison, AMI was sid ,-tracked for the
night. sassinm, however, started West
down the Northern Pacific track and was
followed some distance by Ben Liebers,
a travelling man for Liebers Bros. 4 Co.,
San Francist, who had an ides ,,e might
be up tp some dcvi!ment. After going
some di.tunc, l.irbers returned, The
| West bound train on the N ,rtlicrn Pa
citic was reported one hour late, and the
enYineer of the N. L. switcl. engine con
cluded to run down to LLOYD for water,
which is usually done earlier in the even
ing, but for ONT reason had been omit.
| ed until that time. AS the engine was
running around the big curve at Cedar
Point, about IL fourth Of II mile below
Garrison, the loot. board struck a rock
weighing $50 Ia 200 pounds, and Il rail
roaI tie laid across the track, which the
foot-Lolrd pushed along some five or six
lengths of the engine bei,rc il could be
stopped. The loot-Loard saved The cir
ginc from being Lerailed. The obstruc-
tions we're. EN- we'd AMI they run on to
Llyod for water. Before it returned
Liebs.s told the yard switchman about
S~assions actions, and he went dowr the
track and found, after the switch engine
had passed, some III had stuck several
ties down thrnngh II culvert under the
track, with the rnds sticking up SD they
would &c, tainly | ave drrailc.l any train
running against them. lie sislaled the
switch engine, the ties were removed
and the EN-. Inc ne into til yard. Sas-
sion had in the meantime I, turned and
told a man iamc'l Murphy that he 'had
fixed the tmin-'hu he hal put a lie IN
the track, Int moi Ia SAY anything about
it," When the engine ratnrned the rail-
road men caught SESSION, and perhaps
would have hung him had not U. 5.
Dep"ty Marshal Tom McTaeue interpos-
ed and insisted On the law taking its
curse. The men yielded To hi advice,
and he was Put on an engine by Mcrague
run up to Deer Lodge AMI turned over TO
Sheriff Coleman.
Hal the Garrison switll engine taken
water earlier in the evening. or the
Northern Pacific express been on, or
near on, time, the latter wnu'd undoubt-
e lily have run on the rock and lie at a
very dangerous point and terrible loss of
life might have been the result. Session
had a preliminary hearing Wednesday
of this week befnre Probate Judge En-.
| erson, on the charge of an ATTEMPT to
commit murder, and was held To bail in
: 5000, in failure to give which he was
%aenanlel 10 Jail. TIL. penalty to this
oilense is not to -xcerd ten years in
the territorial prison. His threats
against the life of the brakeman. and to
ditch the train, rs well as his admission
to Murphy and his going down the road
as witnessed by l. lib ,rs, were all in
evidence. lie hal doubtless hid in the
brush, and seeing the switch ensinc
pass safely, hal put the ties in the cnl-
vert and then returned tn the depot t.,
await the result of his vengeance. 1t
was also in evidence that either of the
, distractions would have leriilsd any
en- zine with a CIV catcher, an | the en-
gineer can only sec a very short distance
ahead on thar curve. 1t was the most
damnable attempt on human life we rec.
Object to have heard of in the history OF
Montana iailroadiny, and it is unfortrm-
ate the penalty for such an oilense will
permit the p r ..etrator to ever see the
outside of n prison again. The prose-
cution of the case was represented by
H. r. Whiteliili, Esq, Of Deer Lodge,
and Jas. U. Sand RS, lssl,, of Helena;
There seems no possible doubt of Sas.
sion's guilt.-NOrthwest.